09:16 AM EDT on Tuesday, July 19, 2005

BY KATIE WARCHUT
Journal Staff Writer

GLOCESTER -- Ralph E. Racca called the police Saturday, telling them only that he needed an ambulance, and hung up. When the police and rescue personnel showed up, his wife, Susan Racca, was in the bedroom -- dead.

Ralph E. Racca

Racca, 46, was in District Court yesterday to face charges of murder and possession of a firearm while committing a violent crime. He was ordered held without bail by Judge Michael A. Higgins.

Susan Racca, 42, was in her home at 49 Echo Rd. when she suffered gunshot wounds from a small-caliber rifle, according to Glocester police Chief Jamie A. Hainsworth.

"There was some drinking going on, and there was obviously some argument," he said.

Hainsworth would not release further details, pending an investigation.

Racca was arrested and arraigned Sunday at the police station by Bail Commissioner Patrick Burke.

The alleged slaying was rare for rural Glocester, in which police have not dealt with a homicide in 12 years.

Echo Road, a dead-end street that hugs the southern tip of Pascoag Reservoir, was quiet yesterday. The Raccas' home, white with black shutters, looked just like the other converted summer homes on the street, with flower boxes out front and laundry drying on a clothesline.

Neighbors said they didn't know the Raccas well, and that people mostly kept to themselves. The Raccas did not cause disturbances, they said.

The police and an ambulance had been to the house once before. Ralph Racca said his wife had been drinking and he wanted her to go to the hospital, Hainsworth said, but she didn't go.

Racca has a criminal record, though it does not include domestic violence, according to the police and court records.

In 1998, Racca pleaded no contest to Providence police charges of carrying a pistol without a license and carrying a weapon while under the influence, and he received a deferred sentence. In 1999, he received one year of probation and lost his license for three months for driving under the influence in North Providence.

A year ago, Racca pleaded no contest to breaking and entering at an antiques store in Glocester. He received a five-year suspended sentence with probation.

For violating that probation, he appeared in court for a second time yesterday. In a faded black T-shirt and sagging jeans, Racca was shaking slightly. He haltingly stated his name and told Superior Court Magistrate William J. McAtee he understood the charge.

McAtee set a violation hearing for Aug. 1 and referred Racca to a public defender.

Though they didn't previously appear on any public record, the new domestic violence-related charges did not surprise Susan Racca's parents.

Her father, Charles Jortberg, of Lynnfield, Mass., said he and other family members had been urging her to move out.

"I think she was afraid of him," he said.

Jortberg said he had met Racca only twice in the eight years the two were married. He said they were separated, and that Ralph Racca had gone to an alcohol rehabilitation center for several weeks. He had just come home before Susan was shot, he said.

"She was basically living alone, getting her act together. She was fixing up the house to sell it," he said.

Susan Racca had just begun a new job at Metropolitan Life in customer relations, he said. She had gone to Providence College but dropped out and worked for her father doing market research in Providence. She supported her husband, and they had no children, he said.

"She was just a sweetheart girl. She liked to putter around the garden and really loved her dogs," he said.

The lab mix, Sam, and shepherd mix, Dingo, are now in the animal shelter.

The Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence issued a statement, saying it was the fourth domestic violence slaying of the year. There were 48 domestic violence misdemeanor cases in Glocester in 2004.

"This . . . reminds us that domestic violence happens in all communities, even in isolated rural areas," the coalition said. "It is also important to realize that even when there is no 'recorded' history of domestic violence in a home, that abuse can exist."

Hainsworth said the police prosecute people regularly in domestic violence cases, though the crimes are not usually so severe.

"It's a problem everywhere, no matter how small or big a community," he said. "We have more than we'd like. It's just more shocking when people hear it happen in a small town like this."